Washington, DC — "When you are in space, you don't see Washington; you don't see the tall buildings of New York. You see the Great Wall of China and the great African Rift Valley," Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni told a luncheon audience of travel agents and travel organizations, Thursday. "Part of this valley comes through Uganda."
The Rift Valley gave birth to the human race, Museveni pointed out. Maybe in Uganda. "Where I am inviting you to come there are the original Africans; you are also coming to see the original human beings."
Museveni is in the United States until Saturday on a "working" visit.
Museveni and the battery of Ugandan tour operators and service providers accompanying him tackled 'post-September 11' security concerns and questions on the status of post-Idi Amin infrastructure directly. "A cloud called Amin blotted our horizon and Uganda went to zero," acknowledged Moman Praveen of Volcanoes Safari. "But [now] we have a country transformed."
"Uganda is the right kind of adventure," insists Rosa Whitaker, president of the Whitaker Group which hosted the luncheon.
According to State Minister for tourism, Jovino Akaki, tourism is Uganda's top foreign exchange earner, bringing in US$163m last year. It is expected to put US$194m in the east African nation's coffers this year and the country is aiming for earnings of US$360m per year from the tourism industry over the next 10 years.
Wednesday evening a Discovery Channel documentary film on Uganda, "Uganda - the Presidential Tour" premiered in Washington. Filmed in Uganda earlier this year. Museveni leads journalist Forrest Sawyer on a tour of Kampala, Queen Elizabeth and Kibale national parks, the Nile River, Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and on a visit with mountain gorillas. Museveni also introduces Sawyer and the film audience to the Omukama of Toro Oyo Nyimba Rukidi IV. At 12 years of age, he is the youngest monarch in the world.
"Discovery is anxious to present a more correct and complete view [of Uganda] says Judith McHale, president and CEO of Discovery Communications, Inc. Her group was introduced to Museveni by the Africa Society of the National Summit on Africa. Its president and CEO, Leonard H. Robinson Jr., says that his group is in discussion with Discovery for five more films over the next five years.
More than the desire for tourist dollars drives Museveni's visit to Washington, DC. At USAID headquarters Wednesday morning Museveni signed two public/private partnership agreements with Cisco Systems and the EDS Corporation. The $14.3 million deal is part of a U.S. Government effort aimed at connecting African nations to the Internet. Uganda is a logical place for such an effort, a USAID press release stated, because it "is a leader in bringing the Internet and improved telecommunications to Africa."
And in a passionate speech to the United Nations General Assembly, Museveni called Uganda and other African nations, "donor" nations to Western economies. "African countries, including mine, are big donors but they are donors in ignorance," he said.
Museveni said he and other African exporters are only shipping out raw materials. "If you weave that cotton the value goes up six times. If you produce the garment the value goes up ten times. [So] I am a "mega-donor." I am donating nine or ten dollars out of every kilogram I export. Who will do the spinning, who will do the weaving? Who will do the tailoring? Somebody else....We are donors of jobs."
In an interview with allAfrica.com, Museveni insisted that protective subsidies in the U.S. and Europe have to be removed and that African nations were being unfairly penalized in the aftermath of trade talks in Cancun, Mexico.
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Because Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila is also in Washington, Congo's conflict has also become a part of Museveni's visit. Relations between the DRC and Uganda have been strained over the existence of training camps for Ugandan rebels in the Congo's North Kivu province. Last week, according to Congo minister for regional cooperation, Mbusa Nyamwisi, the Ugandan government began deploying troops along the Congo-Uganda border.
Museveni has denied that Uganda has sent troops into the Congo itself. In September 2002 Kabila and Museveni signed a peace accord in Luanda, Angola and Uganda agreed to begin withdrawing its 10,000 troops then in Congo.
When asked during his allAfrica interview whether he would meet with Kabila, Museveni responded, "We are talking."
